man(1) Manual page archive


     IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

     NAME
          ip, esp, gre, icmp, icmpv6, ipmux, rudp, tcp, udp - network
          protocols over IP

     SYNOPSIS
          bind -a #Ispec /net             /net/icmp
          /net/ipifc                      /net/icmpv6
          /net/ipifc/clone                /net/ipmux
          /net/ipifc/stats                /net/rudp
          /net/ipifc/n                    /net/tcp
          /net/ipifc/n/status             /net/udp
          /net/ipifc/n/ctl                /net/tcp/clone
          ...                             /net/tcp/stats
          /net/arp                        /net/tcp/n
          /net/bootp                      /net/tcp/n/data
          /net/iproute                    /net/tcp/n/ctl
          /net/ipselftab                  /net/tcp/n/local
          /net/log                        /net/tcp/n/remote
          /net/ndb                        /net/tcp/n/status
          /net/esp                        /net/tcp/n/listen
          /net/gre                        ...

    DESCRIPTION
         The ip device provides the interface to Internet Protocol
         stacks.  Spec is an integer from 0 to 15 identifying a
         stack.  Each stack implements IPv4 and IPv6.  Each stack is
         independent of all others: the only information transfer
         between them is via programs that mount multiple stacks.
         Normally a system uses only one stack.  However multiple
         stacks can be used for debugging new IP networks or imple-
         menting firewalls or proxy services.

         All addresses used are 16-byte IPv6 addresses.  IPv4
         addresses are a subset of the IPv6 addresses and both stan-
         dard ASCII formats are accepted.  In binary representation,
         all v4 addresses start with the 12 bytes, in hex:

              00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ff ff

       Configuring interfaces
         Each stack may have multiple interfaces and each interface
         may have multiple addresses.  The /net/ipifc directory con-
         tains a clone file, a stats file, and numbered subdirecto-
         ries for each physical interface.

         Opening the clone file reserves an interface.  The file
         descriptor returned from the open(2) will point to the con-
         trol file, ctl, of the newly allocated interface.  Reading
         ctl returns a text string representing the number of the
         interface.  Writing ctl alters aspects of the interface.

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         The possible ctl messages are those described under Protocol
         directories below and these:

         bind ether path
                        Treat the device mounted at path as an Ether-
                        net medium carrying IP and ARP packets and
                        associate it with this interface.  The kernel
                        will dial(2) path!0x800, path!0x806 and
                        path!0x86dd and use the connections for IPv4,
                        ARP and IPv6 respectively.

         bind pkt       Treat this interface as a packet interface.
                        Assume a user program will read and write the
                        data file to receive and transmit IP packets
                        to the kernel.  This is used by programs such
                        as ppp(8) to mediate IP packet transfer
                        between the kernel and a PPP encoded device.

         bind netdev path
                        Treat this interface as a packet interface.
                        The kernel will open path and read and write
                        the resulting file descriptor to receive and
                        transmit IP packets.

         bind loopback  Treat this interface as a local loopback.
                        Anything written to it will be looped back.

         unbind         Disassociate the physical device from an IP
                        interface.

         add local [ mask remote mtu proxy ]
         try local [ mask remote mtu proxy ]
                        Add a local IP address to the interface.  Try
                        adds the local address as a tentative address
                        if it's an IPv6 address.  The mask, remote,
                        mtu, and proxy arguments are all optional.
                        The default mask is the class mask for the
                        local address.  The default remote address is
                        local ANDed with mask. The default mtu (maxi-
                        mum transmission unit) is 1514 for Ethernet
                        and 4096 for packet media.  The mtu is the
                        size in bytes of the largest packet that this
                        interface can send.  Proxy, if specified,
                        means that this machine should answer ARP
                        requests for the remote address.  Ppp(8) does
                        this to make remote machines appear to be
                        connected to the local Ethernet.

         remove local mask
                        Remove a local IP address from an interface.

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         mtu n          Set the maximum transfer unit for this device
                        to n. The mtu is the maximum size of the
                        packet including any medium-specific headers.

         reassemble     Reassemble IP fragments before forwarding to
                        this interface

         iprouting n    Allow (n is missing or non-zero) or disallow
                        (n is 0) forwarding packets between this
                        interface and others.

         bridge         Enable bridging (see bridge(3)).

         promiscuous    Set the interface into promiscuous mode,
                        which makes it accept all incoming packets,
                        whether addressed to it or not.

         connect type   marks the Ethernet packet type as being in
                        use, if not already in use on this interface.
                        A type of -1 means `all' but appears to be a
                        no-op.

         addmulti Media-addr
                        Treat the multicast Media-addr on this inter-
                        face as a local address.

         remmulti Media-addr
                        Remove the multicast address Media-addr from
                        this interface.

         scanbs         Make the wireless interface scan for base
                        stations.

         headersonly    Set the interface to pass only packet head-
                        ers, not data too.

         add6 v6addr pfx-len [onlink auto validlt preflt]
                        Add the local IPv6 address v6addr with prefix
                        length pfx-len to this interface.  See RFC
                        2461 §6.2.1 for more detail.  The remaining
                        arguments are optional:

                        onlink  flag: address is `on-link'
                        auto    flag: autonomous
                        validlt valid life-time in seconds
                        preflt  preferred life-time in seconds

         ra6 keyword value ...
                        Set IPv6 router advertisement (RA) parameter
                        keyword's value. Known keywords and the mean-
                        ings of their values follow.  See RFC 2461
                        §6.2.1 for more detail.  Flags are true iff

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

                        non-zero.

                        recvra     flag: receive and process RAs.
                        sendra     flag: generate and send RAs.
                        mflag      flag: ``Managed address configura-
                                   tion'', goes into RAs.
                        oflag      flag: ``Other stateful configura-
                                   tion'', goes into RAs.
                        maxraint   ``maximum time allowed between
                                   sending unsolicited multicast''
                                   RAs from the interface, in ms.
                        minraint   ``minimum time allowed between
                                   sending unsolicited multicast''
                                   RAs from the interface, in ms.
                        linkmtu    ``value to be placed in MTU
                                   options sent by the router.''
                                   Zero indicates none.
                        reachtime  sets the Reachable Time field in
                                   RAs sent by the router.  ``Zero
                                   means unspecified (by this
                                   router).''
                        rxmitra    sets the Retrans Timer field in
                                   RAs sent by the router.  ``Zero
                                   means unspecified (by this
                                   router).''
                        ttl        default value of the Cur Hop Limit
                                   field in RAs sent by the router.
                                   Should be set to the ``current
                                   diameter of the Internet.''
                                   ``Zero means unspecified (by this
                                   router).''
                        routerlt   sets the Router Lifetime field of
                                   RAs sent from the interface, in
                                   ms.  Zero means the router is not
                                   to be used as a default router.

         Reading the interface's status file returns information
         about the interface, one line for each local address on that
         interface.  The first line has 9 white-space-separated
         fields: device, mtu, local address, mask, remote or network
         address, packets in, packets out, input errors, output
         errors.  Each subsequent line contains all but the device
         and mtu.  See readipifc in ip(2).

       Routing
         The file iproute controls information about IP routing.
         When read, it returns one line per routing entry.  Each line
         contains six white-space-separated fields: target address,
         target mask, address of next hop, flags, tag, and interface
         number.  The entry used for routing an IP packet is the one
         with the longest mask for which destination address ANDed
         with target mask equals the target address.  The one-

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         character flags are:

         4  IPv4 route
         6  IPv6 route
         i  local interface
         b  broadcast address
         u  local unicast address
         m  multicast route
         p  point-to-point route

         The tag is an arbitrary, up to 4 character, string.  It is
         normally used to indicate what routing protocol originated
         the route.

         Writing to /net/iproute changes the route table.  The mes-
         sages are:

         flush         Remove all routes.

         tag string    Associate the tag, string, with all subsequent
                       routes added via this file descriptor.

         add target mask nexthop
                       Add the route to the table.  If one already
                       exists with the same target and mask, replace
                       it.

         remove target mask
                       Remove a route with a matching target and
                       mask.

         route target  Print on the console the route to address
                       target, if any.  Primarily a debugging aid.

       Address resolution
         The file /net/arp controls information about address resolu-
         tion.  The kernel automatically updates the v4 ARP and v6
         Neighbour Discovery information for Ethernet interfaces.
         When read, the file returns one line per address containing
         the type of medium, the status of the entry (OK, WAIT), the
         IP address, and the medium address.  Writing to /net/arp
         administers the ARP information.  The control messages are:

         flush        Remove all entries.

         add type IP-addr Media-addr
                      Add an entry or replace an existing one for the
                      same IP address.

         del IP-addr  Delete an individual entry.

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         ARP entries do not time out.  The ARP table is a cache with
         an LRU replacement policy.  The IP stack listens for all ARP
         requests and, if the requester is in the table, the entry is
         updated.  Also, whenever a new address is configured onto an
         Ethernet, an ARP request is sent to help update the table on
         other systems.

         Currently, the only medium type is ether.

       Debugging and stack information
         If any process is holding /net/log open, the IP stack queues
         debugging information to it.  This is intended primarily for
         debugging the IP stack.  The information provided is
         implementation-defined; see the source for details.  Gener-
         ally, what is returned is error messages about bad packets.

         Writing to /net/log controls debugging.  The control mes-
         sages are:

         set arglist    Arglist is a space-separated list of items
                        for which to enable debugging.  The possible
                        items are: ppp, ip, fs, tcp, icmp, udp,
                        compress, gre, tcpwin, tcprxmt, udpmsg,
                        ipmsg, and esp.

         clear arglist  Arglist is a space-separated list of items
                        for which to disable debugging.

         only addr      If addr is non-zero, restrict debugging to
                        only those packets whose source or destina-
                        tion is that address.

         The file /net/ndb can be read or written by programs.  It is
         normally used by ipconfig(8) to leave configuration informa-
         tion for other programs such as dns and cs (see ndb(8)).
         /net/ndb may contain up to 1024 bytes.

         The file /net/ipselftab is a read-only file containing all
         the IP addresses considered local.  Each line in the file
         contains three white-space-separated fields: IP address,
         usage count, and flags.  The usage count is the number of
         interfaces to which the address applies.  The flags are the
         same as for routing entries.  Note that the `IPv4 route'
         flag will never be set.

       Protocol directories
         The ip device supports IP as well as several protocols that
         run over it: TCP, UDP, RUDP, ICMP, GRE, and ESP.  TCP and
         UDP provide the standard Internet protocols for reliable
         stream and unreliable datagram communication.  RUDP is a
         locally-developed reliable datagram protocol based on UDP.

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         ICMP is IP's catch-all control protocol used to send low
         level error messages and to implement ping(8). GRE is a gen-
         eral encapsulation protocol.  ESP is the encapsulation pro-
         tocol for IPsec.  IL provided a reliable datagram service
         for communication between Plan 9 machines over IPv4, but is
         no longer part of the system.

         Each protocol is a subdirectory of the IP stack.  The top
         level directory of each protocol contains a clone file, a
         stats file, and subdirectories numbered from zero to the
         number of connections opened for this protocol.

         Opening the clone file reserves a connection.  The file
         descriptor returned from the open(2) will point to the con-
         trol file, ctl, of the newly allocated connection.  Reading
         ctl returns a text string representing the number of the
         connection.  Connections may be used either to listen for
         incoming calls or to initiate calls to other machines.

         A connection is controlled by writing text strings to the
         associated ctl file.  After a connection has been estab-
         lished data may be read from and written to data.  A connec-
         tion can be actively established using the connect message
         (see also dial(2)). A connection can be established pas-
         sively by first using an announce message (see dial(2)) to
         bind to a local port and then opening the listen file (see
         dial(2)) to receive incoming calls.

         The following control messages are supported:

         connect ip-address!port!r local
                      Establish a connection to the remote ip-address
                      and port. If local is specified, it is used as
                      the local port number.  If local is not speci-
                      fied but !r is, the system will allocate a
                      restricted port number (less than 1024) for the
                      connection to allow communication with Unix
                      login and exec services.  Otherwise a free port
                      number starting at 5000 is chosen.  The connect
                      fails if the combination of local and remote
                      address/port pairs are already assigned to
                      another port.

         announce X   X is a decimal port number or `*'.  Set the
                      local port number to X and accept calls to X.
                      If X is `*', accept calls for any port that no
                      process has explicitly announced.  The local IP
                      address cannot be set.  Announce fails if the
                      connection is already announced or connected.

         bind X       X is a decimal port number or `*'.  Set the

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

                      local port number to X. This exists to support
                      emulation of BSD sockets by the APE libraries
                      (see pcc(1)) and is not otherwise used.

         ttl n        Set the time to live IP field in outgoing pack-
                      ets to n.

         tos n        Set the service type IP field in outgoing pack-
                      ets to n.

         ignoreadvice Don't break (UDP) connections because of ICMP
                      errors.

         addmulti ifc-ip [ mcast-ip ]
                      Treat ifc-ip on this multicast interface as a
                      local address.  If mcast-ip is present, use it
                      as the interface's multicast address.

         remmulti ip  Remove the address ip from this multicast
                      interface.

         Port numbers must be in the range 1 to 32767.

         Several files report the status of a connection.  The remote
         and local files contain the IP address and port number for
         the remote and local side of the connection.  The status
         file contains protocol-dependent information to help debug
         network connections.  On receiving and error or EOF reading
         or writing the data file, the err file contains the reason
         for error.

         A process may accept incoming connections by open(2)ing the
         listen file.  The open will block until a new connection
         request arrives.  Then open will return an open file
         descriptor which points to the control file of the newly
         accepted connection.  This procedure will accept all calls
         for the given protocol.  See dial(2).

       TCP
         TCP connections are reliable point-to-point byte streams;
         there are no message delimiters.  A connection is determined
         by the address and port numbers of the two ends.  TCP ctl
         files support the following additional messages:

         hangup       close down this TCP connection

         keepalive n  turn on keep alive messages.  N, if given, is
                      the milliseconds between keepalives (default
                      30000).

         checksum n   emit TCP checksums of zero if n is zero;

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

                      otherwise, and by default, TCP checksums are
                      computed and sent normally.

         tcpporthogdefense onoff
                      onoff of `on' enables the TCP port-hog defense
                      for all TCP connections; onoff of `off' dis-
                      ables it.  The defense is a solution to
                      hijacked systems staking out ports as a form of
                      denial-of-service attack.  To avoid stateless
                      TCP conversation hogs, ip picks a TCP sequence
                      number at random for keepalives.  If that num-
                      ber gets acked by the other end, ip shuts down
                      the connection.  Some firewalls, notably ones
                      that perform stateful inspection, discard such
                      out-of-specification keepalives, so connections
                      through such firewalls will be killed after
                      five minutes by the lack of keepalives.

       UDP
         UDP connections carry unreliable and unordered datagrams.  A
         read from data will return the next datagram, discarding
         anything that doesn't fit in the read buffer.  A write is
         sent as a single datagram.

         By default, a UDP connection is a point-to-point link.
         Either a connect establishes a local and remote address/port
         pair or after an announce, each datagram coming from a dif-
         ferent remote address/port pair establishes a new incoming
         connection.  However, many-to-one semantics is also possi-
         ble.

         If, after an announce, the message `headers' is written to
         ctl, then all messages sent to the announced port are
         received on the announced connection prefixed with the cor-
         responding structure, declared in <ip.h>:

              typedef struct Udphdr Udphdr;
              struct Udphdr
              {
                   uchar     raddr[16];     /* V6 remote address and port */
                   uchar     laddr[16];     /* V6 local address and port */
                   uchar     ifcaddr[16];   /* V6 interface address (receive only) */
                   uchar     rport[2]; /* remote port */
                   uchar     lport[2]; /* local port */
              };

         Before a write, a user must prefix a similar structure to
         each message.  The system overrides the user specified local
         port with the announced one.  If the user specifies an
         address that isn't a unicast address in /net/ipselftab, that
         too is overridden.  Since the prefixed structure is the same
         in read and write, it is relatively easy to write a server

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         that responds to client requests by just copying new data
         into the message body and then writing back the same buffer
         that was read.

         In this case (writing `headers' to the ctl file), no listen
         nor accept is needed; otherwise, the usual sequence of
         announce, listen, accept must be executed before performing
         I/O on the corresponding data file.

       RUDP
         RUDP is a reliable datagram protocol based on UDP, currently
         only for IPv4.  Packets are delivered in order.  RUDP does
         not support listen.  One must write either `connect' or
         `announce' followed immediately by `headers' to ctl.

         Unlike TCP, the reboot of one end of a connection does not
         force a closing of the connection.  Communications will
         resume when the rebooted machine resumes talking.  Any unac-
         knowledged packets queued before the reboot will be lost.  A
         reboot can be detected by reading the err file.  It will
         contain the message

              hangup address!port

         where address and port are of the far side of the connec-
         tion.  Retransmitting a datagram more than 10 times is
         treated like a reboot: all queued messages are dropped, an
         error is queued to the err file, and the conversation
         resumes.

         RUDP ctl files accept the following messages:

         headers               Corresponds to the `headers' format of
                               UDP.
         hangup IP port        Drop the connection to address IP and
                               port.
         randdrop [ percent ]  Randomly drop percent of outgoing
                               packets.  Default is 10%.

       ICMP
         ICMP is a datagram protocol for IPv4 used to exchange con-
         trol requests and their responses with other machines' IP
         implementations.  ICMP is primarily a kernel-to-kernel pro-
         tocol, but it is possible to generate `echo request' and
         read `echo reply' packets from user programs.

       ICMPV6
         ICMPv6 is the IPv6 equivalent of ICMP.  If, after an
         announce, the message `headers' is written to ctl, then
         before a write, a user must prefix each message with a cor-
         responding structure, declared in <ip.h>:

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

              /*
               *  user level icmpv6 with control message "headers"
               */
              typedef struct Icmp6hdr Icmp6hdr;
              struct Icmp6hdr {
                   uchar     unused[8];
                   uchar     laddr[IPaddrlen];   /* local address */
                   uchar     raddr[IPaddrlen];   /* remote address */
              };

         In this case (writing `headers' to the ctl file), no listen
         nor accept is needed; otherwise, the usual sequence of
         announce, listen, accept must be executed before performing
         I/O on the corresponding data file.

       GRE
         GRE is the encapsulation protocol used by PPTP.  The kernel
         implements just enough of the protocol to multiplex it.  Our
         implementation encapsulates in IPv4, per RFC 1702.  Announce
         is not allowed in GRE, only connect.  Since GRE has no port
         numbers, the port number in the connect is actually the 16
         bit eproto field in the GRE header.

         Reads and writes transfer a GRE datagram starting at the GRE
         header.  On write, the kernel fills in the eproto field with
         the port number specified in the connect message.

       ESP
         ESP is the Encapsulating Security Payload (RFC 1827, obso-
         leted by RFC 4303) for IPsec (RFC 4301).  We currently
         implement only tunnel mode, not transport mode.  It is used
         to set up an encrypted tunnel between machines.  Like GRE,
         ESP has no port numbers.  Instead, the port number in the
         connect message is the SPI (Security Association Identifier
         (sic)).  IP packets are written to and read from data.  The
         kernel encrypts any packets written to data, appends a MAC,
         and prefixes an ESP header before sending to the other end
         of the tunnel.  Received packets are checked against their
         MAC's, decrypted, and queued for reading from data.  In the
         following, secret is the hexadecimal encoding of a key,
         without a leading `0x'.  The control messages are:

         esp alg secret  Encrypt with the algorithm, alg, using
                         secret as the key.  Possible algorithms are:
                         null, des_56_cbc, des3_cbc, and eventually
                         aes_128_cbc, and aes_ctr.

         ah alg secret   Use the hash algorithm, alg, with secret as
                         the key for generating the MAC.  Possible
                         algorithms are: null, hmac_sha1_96,
                         hmac_md5_96, and eventually aes_xcbc_mac_96.

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         header          Turn on header mode.  Every buffer read from
                         data starts with 4 unused bytes, and the
                         first 4 bytes of every buffer written to
                         data are ignored.

         noheader        Turn off header mode.

       IP packet filter
         The directory /net/ipmux looks like another protocol direc-
         tory.  It is a packet filter built on top of IP.  Each num-
         bered subdirectory represents a different filter.  The con-
         nect messages written to the ctl file describe the filter.
         Packets matching the filter can be read on the data file.
         Packets written to the data file are routed to an interface
         and transmitted.

         A filter is a semicolon-separated list of relations.  Each
         relation describes a portion of a packet to match.  The pos-
         sible relations are:

         proto=n          the IP protocol number must be n.

         data[n:m]=expr   bytes n through m following the IP packet
                          must match expr.

         iph[n:m]=expr    bytes n through m of the IP packet header
                          must match expr.

         ifc=expr         the packet must have been received on an
                          interface whose address matches expr.

         src=expr         The source address in the packet must match
                          expr.

         dst=expr         The destination address in the packet must
                          match expr.

         Expr is of the form:

              value

              value|value|...

              value&mask

              value|value&mask

         If a mask is given, the relevant field is first ANDed with
         the mask.  The result is compared against the value or list
         of values for a match.  In the case of ifc, dst, and src the
         value is a dot-formatted IP address and the mask is a dot-

    IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

         formatted IP mask.  In the case of data, iph and proto, both
         value and mask are strings of 2 hexadecimal digits repre-
         senting 8-bit values.

         A packet is delivered to only one filter.  The filters are
         merged into a single comparison tree.  If two filters match
         the same packet, the following rules apply in order (here
         '>' means is preferred to):

         1)   protocol > data > source > destination > interface

         2)   lower data offsets > higher data offsets

         3)   longer matches > shorter matches

         4)   older > younger

         So far this has just been used to implement a version of
         OSPF in Inferno and 6to4 tunnelling.

       Statistics
         The stats files are read only and contain statistics useful
         to network monitoring.

         Reading /net/ipifc/stats returns a list of 19 tagged and
         newline-separated fields representing:
           forwarding status (0 and 2 mean foourtwpaurtdipnagckoeftfs,
                1 means on)                output packets discarded
           default TTL                     output packets with no route
           input packets                   timed out fragments in reassembly queue
           input header errors             requested reassemblies
           input address errors            successful reassemblies
           packets forwarded               failed reassemblies
           input packets for unknown protocoslusccessful fragmentations
           input packets discarded         unsuccessful fragmentations
           input packets delivered to higherfrlaegvmeelntpsroctroecaotlesd

        Reading /net/icmp/stats returns a list of 26 tagged and
        newline-separated fields representing:
          messages received
          bad received messages
          unreachables received
          time exceededs received
          input parameter problems received
          source quenches received
          redirects received
          echo requests received
          echo replies received
          timestamps received
          timestamp replies received
          address mask requests received
          address mask replies received

   IP(3)                                                       IP(3)

          me.in -0.25i

     Reading /net/tcp/stats returns a list of 11 tagged and
     newline-separated fields representing:
       maximum number of connections   segments received
       total outgoing calls            segments sent
       total incoming calls            segments retransmitted
       number of established connectionsrettorabnesmrietsettimeouts
       number of currently established cboandnercetcieoinvsed segments
                                       transmission failures

     Reading /net/udp/stats returns a list of 4 tagged and
     newline-separated fields representing:
       datagrams received              malformed datagrams received
       datagrams received for bad portsdatagrams sent

     Reading /net/gre/stats returns a list of 1 tagged number
     representing:
       header length errors

SEE ALSO
     dial(2), ip(2), bridge(3), ndb(6), listen(8)
     /lib/rfc/rfc2460  IPv6
     /lib/rfc/rfc4291  IPv6 address architecture
     /lib/rfc/rfc4443  ICMPv6

SOURCE
     /sys/src/9/ip

BUGS
     Ipmux has not been heavily used and should be considered
     experimental.  It may disappear in favor of a more tradi-
     tional packet filter in the future.